Solution Overview
The Dolder Grand luxury hotel in Zurich uses Cisco
UCS to provide guests with reliable service
Perfect service
The Dolder Grand has forged a reputation for excellent service. The five-star luxury hotel
has modernised its IT infrastructure in order to maintain this level of excellence and provide
optimum service for its guests. Forty physical servers have been replaced with six Cisco
UCS blades. These now ensure maximum possible network stability in combination with
VMware virtualisation solutions and NetApp storage systems. Employees can now allocate
rooms, make reservations and perform check-in and check-out processes quickly and
efficiently around the clock. Guests can reliably regulate the lighting and temperature of
their rooms. The hotel itself benefits from simplified administration, lower energy
consumption and reduced operating costs in the data centre.
The Dolder Grand Hotel and Spa was built in 1899 as
a health resort for residents of Zurich.
The Dolder Grand can be seen from afar in its location overlooking the city of Zurich. The hotel
was built between 1897 and 1899 under the direction of Basel architect Jacques Gros in the
style of a castle and was originally designed as a hotel and spa retreat for city-dwellers in need
of relaxation. Over the decades, it has accommodated numerous illustrious guests such as
John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Roger Moore, Arthur Rubinstein, Michael Jackson, Luciano
Pavarotti, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev. Planning for further modernisation began in
2001 led by architect Lord Norman Foster, best known for his design of the glass dome on
Germany's Reichstag building. During the comprehensive renovations, carried out from 2004 to
2008, the original historical building was restored and its facade returned to its original state.
Two new modern wings were also added to the building. Today, the city resort offers 173 rooms
and suites, exquisite cuisine, a 4000-square-metre spa complex and generous banqueting and
conference facilities.
Full makeover
While a renovation every 50 years may be sufficient for the substance of a building, the IT world
works within far shorter time frames. The IT infrastructure which had been implemented during
the renovations in 2008 consisted of 40 physical servers and was already obsolete after three
years. Its performance and storage capacity no longer lived up to current expectations. Patrick
Stäheli, Director of Engineering at the Dolder Resort, therefore decided to implement a modern,
more reliable and higher-performance solution. Further demands included comprehensive
virtualisation using VMware in order to increase server efficiency and thus reduce both energy
consumption and space requirements. In addition, cooling demands for the hotel's server room
were to be significantly reduced.
Patrick Stäheli, Director of Engineering: "The hardware
now does what it should - it works. Cisco UCS has given
us a stable platform that serves as a basis for all
applications."
Solution Overview
"We considered a number of different options which we narrowed down to a shortlist
of two", recalls Patrick Stäheli. "One alternative was to replace the existing servers with
three to four up-to-date HP systems. The other option was Cisco UCS with VMware
and NetApp. Initially, we were sceptical and thought that the Cisco solution was
perhaps overlarge for our requirements but the attractive price, simplified
management and the numerous functions available persuaded us in the end. We also
wanted to have proven, state-of-the-art technology from the market leader at our
disposal, even if we only actually need and use a fraction of the possibilities it offers.
This way, we can guarantee that our infrastructure is ready for the future."
The Cisco 5100 series UCS Blade Server Chassis
provides space for up to 8 half-width or 4 full-width
Cisco UCS B-series blade servers and features
standard front-to-back cooling.
Background
The five-star luxury Dolder Grand Hotel in
Zurich offers 173 rooms and suites, exquisite
gastronomy, a 4000 square metre spa complex
and generous banqueting and conference
facilities. The original health spa, built in 1899, is
now a luxury-class city resort. The hotel's
elevated location provides a stunning view of
the city of Zurich, its lake and the Alps.
The challenge
The hotel's IT infrastructure was implemented
during renovations in 2008. It consisted of 40
physical servers and was already obsolete after
three years. Its performance and storage
capacity no longer lived up to current
expectations, the system was no longer reliable
and the IT department were required to provide
support more and more frequently, including at
night and on weekends.
Solution
A comprehensive solution has been
implemented in the data centre consisting of
Cisco UCS, the VMware vSphere 4 virtualisation
solution and NetApp Filer storage systems. The
UCS consists of two Fabric Interconnects, one
chassis and six B200 blades. Each blade
consists of two processors, each with six cores
and 96 GB of memory.
Benefits
• Increased stability and speed of applications
• Fewer support requests and remote access
capability
• Lower operating costs due to simplified
management
• Reduced energy consumption for electricity
and air conditioning
The Dolder Grand UCS initially consisted of four B200 blades, two Fabric
Interconnects and one chassis. Shortly afterwards, the hotel's IT department
extended the UCS by two additional blades so that they now employ a total of six.
Each blade has two processors, each with six cores and 96 GB of memory. These
servers are used to run all the applications from the previous servers which have
been virtualised using VMware vSphere 4. The previously low-performance
memory system was replaced with a NetApp Filer which now operates the
virtualisation platform based on UCS.
Initial installation and commissioning of the UCS and VMware was performed in under
two days. Following the smooth deployment of VMware, the platform was ready to use.
Migration was performed in a total of two weeks thanks to prior conversion to the
NetApp storage system. The project remained on schedule and within budget. Service
profiles were cloned during the upgrade making the hardware ready for use within just
a few minutes. This was possible as neither network or SAN had to be configured;
everything is pre-configured within the UCS.
Reliable platform
Patrick Stäheli was impressed not only by the speed of installation but also by the
reliability of the new infrastructure: "The hardware now does what it should - it works.
Cisco UCS has given us a stable platform that serves as a basis for all applications.
These include business applications such as Abacus accounting software and the
Amadeus reservation system as well as standard applications such as Exchange,
SharePoint and Citrix. They can now all be accessed in a virtualised form which has
considerably increased their performance and availability".
The new solution also proved impressive during the Cisco demonstration by rapidly
resolving errors with no downtime. Thanks to the additional hardware abstraction layer,
a defective blade can simply be removed and replaced with a new one. Users remain
entirely unaware of this since the virtualised applications continue to run as normal in
the meantime using the other blades. This solution would not be possible using single
servers. So far, however, replacement has not been necessary during continuous
operation at the Dolder Grand as the hardware has run flawlessly. In fact, the blade
servers cause the IT department very little work on an everyday basis as they run
reliably and require no active maintenance or administration. Passive monitoring to
supervise the running of the system is entirely sufficient.
Queries can also now be processed via remote access. This means that on-call IT staff
can alter the systems from home and no longer have to be on-site at the hotel. The
new solution has also lowered operating costs since the reduced number of servers
are considerably simpler to administrate and also require less energy and cooling. The
existing air conditioning system is therefore adequate for the job once more.
Solution Overview
Expert partner
"Following our thoroughly positive experiences with this solution, we can award very high
marks to all three providers", enthuses Patrick Stäheli. "They can also be contacted at any
time and answer our questions quickly and competently. Communication is very direct
and open, in particular with our current contact person at Cisco, with whom we had
already worked for several years in his previous position. We have also received
excellent support from Cisco, VMware and NetApp in terms of strategy planning and
new ideas and solutions."
Since the start of 2010, these three companies have been working in close collaboration
to provide comprehensive solutions, service and support for cloud-based data centres
from a single source. VMware is responsible for the virtualisation of the servers. Data and
images on the virtual machines are stored on NetApp Filers and on their data storage
systems using their own file system in the storage area network. Servers are connected
to the networks by Cisco switches, which use Unified Fabric to combine the data,
storage, and communication networks into a single view in the data centre. VMware
vSphere 4 provides the necessary support for managing the networks. The customer is
free to select hardware for the virtual machines and network facilities. However, the
Dolder Grand chose to use Cisco blades and is also planning to use network solutions
by the same provider in the near future.
The 5-star Dolder Grand Hotel is situated in an
idyllic location on the western slopes of
Adlisberg mountain overlooking Lake Zurich
and the city.
Outlook
On the strength of their positive experiences, the luxury hotel is planning to upgrade
their entire current network with Cisco Nexus and Catalyst switches in the coming year.
The possibilities for new applications and special services for guests will then be
practically unlimited. "For instance, we are considering replacing telephones in the
rooms with tablet PCs such as the Cisco Cius", explains Patrick Stäheli. "Guests will then
receive important additional information straight away, and will be able to control the air
conditioning or lighting in their room more intuitively or communicate with hotel
employees by video conference. The new Cisco network in combination with UCS forms
the basis for all these functions and applications."
Customer contact:
The Dolder Grand Patrick
Stäheli Kurhausstrasse
65 8032 Zurich,
Switzerland
Tel: +41 44 456 6000
E-Mail: p.staeheli@thedolderresort.com
www.thedoldergrand.com
Cisco Systems
GmbH
Kurfürstendamm 22
10719 Berlin,
Germany
Cisco Systems
GmbH
Neuer Wall 77
20354 Hamburg,
Germany
Cisco Systems GmbH
Hansaallee 249
40549 Düsseldorf,
Germany
Cisco Systems GmbH
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 67-69
53113 Bonn,
Germany
Cisco Systems GmbH
Ludwig-ErhardStrasse 3
65760 Eschborn,
Germany
Cisco Systems GmbH
City Plaza
Rotebühlplatz 21-25
70178 Stuttgart,
Germany
Cisco Systems GmbH
Am Söldnermoos 17
85399 Hallbergmoos,
Germany
Tel: +49 800 187 0318
www.cisco.de
Cisco Systems Austria GmbH
Millennium Tower,
30th & 31st floor
Handelskai 94-96
1206 Vienna,
Austria
Tel: +43 124 030 6000
Fax: +43 124 030 6300
Tel: +43 800 297 782
www.cisco.at
Salzburg Office
Bürocenter am Arenberg
Eberhard Fugger Strasse 5
5020 Salzburg,
Austria
Tel: +43 800 297 526,
+43 124 030 6000
Fax: +43 124 030 6300
Cisco Systems
Switzerland GmbH
Richtistrasse 7
CH-8304 Wallisellen,
Switzerland
Tel +41 44 878 9200
Fax +41 44 878 9292
Cisco Systems
Switzerland GmbH
In the Bern Technology Park
Morgenstrasse 129
3018 Bern,
Switzerland
Tel +41 31 998 5050
Fax +41 31 998 4469
Cisco Systems
Switzerland GmbH
Avenue des Uttins 5
1180 Rolle,
Switzerland
Tel +41 21 822 1600
Fax +41 21 822 1610
Tel: +41 800 835 735
www.cisco.ch
Copyright © 1992-2011, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aironet, Catalyst, Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, Registrar and SMARTnet are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems,
Inc. and/or their related companies in the USA and certain other countries.
All other brands mentioned in this document or on the website are the property of the relevant owner. The use of the word "partner" does not imply a partnership agreement between Cisco and another company. ( 0208R )
03/09